Sunday, June 29, 2008

Football is probably the most popular sport in the world. Tonight the final of the European Championship 2008 will be played between Spain and Germany. A nice reason to promote a football related G-Shock.In 2006 Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup. Because the size of this even, there are a lot of big international sponsors. One of them was Casio. In 2005 Casio made these big G-Shock count down clocks, which were found in every participating city. Specially for this event Casio also developed Referee Timers like the DW-56RT.Actually I don't watch football much, although I have seen several games that the Orange played. Unfortunately we were wiped in the quarter finals. Funny enough I discovered that Bram's football is also a World Cup 2006 model, in the team colors of Germany.In 2006 special FIFA G-Shock's were released. TheGW-1400WCE-9AVER and GW-1201WC-9AV were two Waveceptor models (EU reception only), G-300BWC-1AV a Cockpit model and also a white and a black DW-56RTWC's were released. The most known series are the "World Cup 2006 Soccer team uniform colors series". This was a triplet of Gs in the team colors of the last three winning countries Brazil, France and Germany. Of the three, the French model, G-300WC-2AJR, is not easy to find. I think it was only released in Japan. The DW-5600WC-1ER and DW-6900WCJ-9ER were sold outside Japan in large quantities. Recently a load these watches were sold as NOS in Germany for unbelievable prices. I bought my first Brazilian model from Seiya-San for a good price of around $100.- in May 2006. I bought the same model with a German model for only €30.- together about a month ago.For the DW-5600WC (Germany) have a look at Jason's weblog here. I will highlight today my favorite of this series. It's the Brazilian team model. I like bright colors and I even think the colors of the Brazilian team are world wide very popular. As you can see this watch is basically bright yellow with green accents. Specially the green ring around the display is very eye catching. A illustration of the World Cup is shown on the long strap, while the strap retainer shows the logo of the FIFA.On the back of the watch there is a special engravement. It shows the official "World Cup Germany 2006" logo. It has the 1289 module. The functions are very basic, but sufficient. The watch has an alarm function (with the possibility to program it to one or certain dates), an hourly chime, a Countdown Timer an a Stopwatch. A great plus of this module is that the time is shown in both the CDT as the STW mode.

In the EL backlight a lion figure shows up. This is the official mascot of the World Cup 2006. He's called Goleo VI, the lovable lion.He's accompanied by his sidekick, Pille the talking football. Goleo VI was created by The Jim Henson Company, known for the puppet of the Muppet Show and Sesame Street.And how did the FIFA World Cup 2006 end. Italy met formerer Champion Du Monde (1998) France in the final. The final is best remembered by an incident in the end of the the extra time while millions viewers worldwide saw how Zinedine Zidane rammed down Marco Materazzi with his head.Zidane was sent out of the field and the extra time ended in a 1-1 score. The game ended with penalties, which the Italian team did much better then France. The final score Italy - France is 5 - 3, leaving Italy as the new (and present) World Champion. If you are finished, can I get some attention too?

Saturday, June 21, 2008

As a collector of G-Shocks you always find some models more attractive than other. The variety of models is very big. The DW-003TL models is one of my favorites. I have quiet a lot of them and this will probably not be the last one on 50Gs.Finding info about the DW-003TL models is not easy. They are not released in Japan under this model number, so they are not mentioned in the G-Shock Bibles of 2007 and 2008. It took me a while, but the correct model number for this watch is DW-003TL-7VQT. It was released in July 1997.The DW-003TL came in several various color variations. Orange, blue, yellow, black and white with negative displays, the black, white and orange versions also have a normal display version too. Most of these watches I have seen come with the negative display, indicating that the normal display models are made in much smaller numbers.

The letters TL stands for Tough Label. Tough Label is the series of G-Shock made for the serious "clubber". Let's put in a nice CD of Mirwais to get into the right atmosphere.Tough Label has a wide variety in models, which often they have a BPM counter. This model does not have this feature, but it has about all functions you can wish for on a basic model anno 1997. Nowadays it's passed by mobile phones, but this watch can store up to 30 telephone numbers, an alarm and hourly chime, complete independent programmable dual time, a 24h countdown timer with auto repeat function and a stopwatch.A funny extra, completely worthless, but funny function, is the Equalizer function. If you push the upper right button for about 2 seconds, the upper display shows a graphic frequency analyzer animation.In Japan the Tough Label series is mostly called the G'Mix series, but it does not apply to these models. A pretty similar model has been released in Japan too, under number DW-003C-7T, with exact the same strap. The only difference is that there is a big "lighting G" in the EL backlight of hte Japanese version.Probably the most eye catching on this watch is the double Velcro watchband. The bottom band is a kind of thick stretch towel fabric. The upper part is woven nylon. The buckle holds the band in place. The case is attached to the upper band with two strap adapters. This way you can't loose the watch, not even when under strong force one of the push pins might fail. In that case the case will bestill attached with the other strap adapter.When people see this kind of watchband for the first time, they think it's warm and looking too big. Once you have tried it on, it's great. This strap is unbelievable comfortable. You actually hardly notice the watch is there.The fact that the case is attached to the upper strap with strap adapters make it possible for the case to migrate a little up and down. Also here is sounds like something you don't want, but actually it makes the watch adapt to the shape and size of your wrist.

This white model looks pretty sharp when worn. One can hardly look over it. It makes it a great summer watch for flashing along the beach. Now hoping for the sun to shine, so I can take it out for a ride on my bike....

Welcome to 50 Gs

I'm Sjors and you might know me from my G-Peopleland website. I started this weblog in 2008, together with Greg from Canada. My initial goal was to write about 50 G-Shock models in one year. Meanwhile we are in the seventh series of 50 G-Shock Articles. I write mostly all the articles, but I also invite guest authors.

All G-Shocks I write about are mine. These are NOT for sale. Please no enquiries. The answer is simple: "No".

If you like what I have written or have questions or improvements (I am only human), please leave a comment. Since I got a lot of spam comments, I review all comments before posting. I hope that this doesn't withhold you from writing. I try to publish your comment as soon as possible.

Since early 2014 we had to upgrade to a new computer running Windows 8. Since only Windows XP was supported with my WYSIWYG HTML-Editor, I can't add, edit or even reach any content of G-Peopleland anymore. I do not know if I ever have the energy to make a new website (there are over 400 pages), but until then G-Peopleland will still exist as a monument in G-Shock History. Also note that my website e-mail address is completely filled with spam and therefore full and unreachable. Best to contact me via a comment or Facebook. Sorry for the inconvenience.